HAMDEN, Conn. — Quinnipiac scored twice in the opening 2 minutes, 10 seconds of the second period to skate away with a 5-2 victory over the Cornell men’s hockey team on Friday night at High Point Solutions Arena. With the win, the #1/1 Bobcats take a 1-0 lead in the ECAC Hockey Championship quarterfinal series.
After the two quick Quinnipiac (26-2-7) goals, Cornell (15-10-7) gradually took control of the run of play in the second and eventually cut its deficit to one goal on junior forward Jeff Kubiak‘s power-play goal. But the Bobcats countered with their own power-play strike before the intermission to take a commanding two-goal lead into the third.
“I thought they played well, and I didn’t think we played well,” said Mike Schafer, the Jay R. Bloom ’77 Head Coach of Men’s Hockey. “We didn’t do the things we did last week, which was pick guys up around our net and be solid on the penalty kill and on special teams. They’re a good hockey team, and when you’re not doing those things you’re not going to win hockey games.”
If Quinnipiac wins Game 2, which starts at 7 p.m. Saturday, it will likely end Cornell’s season. A Big Red victory would force a winner-take-all Game 3 at 4 p.m. Sunday.
Still seemingly riding the momentum of a first-round sweep of Union, Cornell took it to Quinnipiac in the opening minutes as the Bobcats shook off the rust from their first-round bye week. Kubiak fed freshman forward Mitch Vanderlaan for a quality chance from the slot on the rush, but Quinnipiac goalie Michael Garteig got his right toe to the shot just 53 seconds in.
But Cornell struck first at the 3:23 mark. On a hard ring around the boards from the defense in the Cornell zone, senior forward John Knisley was first to it and deftly angled a backhand redirect back toward the middle of the blue line. That allowed junior forwards Jake Weidner and Eric Freschi to speed away on a two-on-one. Freschi fed Weidner as he approached the inside of the left circle, and Weidner snapped a shot past Garteig’s blocker and inside the near post to give the visitors an early 1-0 lead.
Quinnipiac picked up a little steam from there and the game started to open up a little more. A slow-developing Bobcats three-on-two appeared to fizzle out as Landon Smith started to lose his angle toward the bottom the right circle — but then he snapped a quick shot over Cornell goalie Mitch Gillam‘s catching glove inside the near post to tie the game.
Both Quinnipiac goals early in the second came on rebounds from distant shots, the first cashed in by Travis St. Denis and the second converted by Thomas Aldworth.
Cornell answered on its second power play of the game when a pair of Quinnipiac forecheckers got caught deep and the Big Red came away on a clean three-on-two. Angello passed off to Kubiak as they neared the left circle, and Cornell’s leading scorer wristed a shot past Garteig’s catching glove to make the score 3-2.
After Gillam made a breakaway save on K.J. Tiefenwerth about four minutes later, Cornell appeared to be in position to take momentum into the third period. But Quinnipiac drew a power play just before the break, and Sam Anas scored a controversial goal with 1:52 left to restore Quinnipiac’s two-goal lead. Passes by St. Denis and Devon Toews set up Anas for a one-timer in his favored spot in the slot, and his shot went through traffic and in. The play went to video review to check the legality of Landon Smith’s presence in the crease — but the goal stood.
Quinnipiac tacked on an empty-netter by Soren Jonzzon with 1:24 to play to cap the scoring.
